Fish lure engraved with fine lines zig zag down the middle and triangles along both sides

Two lures tied together with cord. Both have black V-shaped engraving on them.

TOTEMS TO TURQUOISE (AMNH, NEW YORK, NY, USA, 2004)

A. Augustus Healy Fund

This is a curved pipe with a bowl shaped like a knob on a slender pole. Along the stem of the pipe are carved scenes of whale and walus hunting and village scenes with food preparation.Pipes like this were used but also made for trade.

Frank L. Babbott Fund

These three objects tell a story of Mexico’s early nineteenth-century Creole patriotism. The Mexican independence movement was fueled by Creoles, who were often denied a voice in colonial government. The 1821 Act of Independence formalized the independence that had been declared in 1810 and was signed by many Creole aristocrats, among them Don José María Gómez de Cervantes, whose portrait is on view nearby. New World figures like the Virgin of Guadalupe, who miraculously appeared to the Indian Juan Diego in 1521, and Saint Felipe de Jesús, the first Mexican-born saint, became important nationalist symbols, supporting the idea that the independence of Mexico was divinely ordained.


Estos tres objetos cuentan la historia del patriotismo criollo en el México de inicios del siglo XIX. El movimiento de independencia mexicano fue promovido por criollos, a quienes con frecuencia se les negó voz en el gobierno colonial. El Acta de la Independencia de 1821 formalizó la independencia que había sido declarada en 1810 y fue firmada por muchos aristócratas criollos, entre ellos don José María Gómez de Cervantes, cuyo retrato se exhibe aquí cerca. Las imágenes sagradas del Nuevo Mundo como la Virgen de Guadalupe, la que milagrosamente se le apareció al indio Juan Diego en 1521, y San Felipe de Jesús, el primer santo nacido en México, llegaron a ser importantes símbolos nacionalistas que apoyaron la idea de que la independencia de México era un designio divino.

Fish lure or charm carved in the shape of a small seal with a perforation in the middle. The perforations around the face of the seal have been infilled with black pigment.

A. Augustus Healy Fund

A sheet of paper with a pictorial genealogy recorded in multicolored inks. The focal point of the genealogy is Juan Tepetzin, who is dressed in the dark cloak in the bottom center of the document. His forebears, who are depicted above him, are members of the native elite and they are wearing elegant cloaks and sandals and holding bouquets favored by the nobility. Tepetzin's ancestor Yxtletletzin is sheltered within a palace. The document is identified as being from Tlaxcala for a few reasons: the wooden stools on which Tepetzin's male relatives sit and the brick-like upper story of the palace are typical Tlaxcalan works, and similar bouquets and red-netted cloaks are found in the Lienzo of Tlaxcala, a narrative painting of Tlaxcala's Conquest-era history. In this document, two rectangles (one with five plants) were added after the genealogy was painted. These rectangles denote agricultural fields and indicate with the Nahuatl text that Juan Tepetzin took over some abandoned lands. The genealogy therefore relates to a land transfer.